


Truth or Dare?

by Serie11



Series: Femslash February 2018 [6]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Cute Ending, F/F, Fluff, Hopeful Ending, I will fill the rarepair tags by myself if i have to, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Truth or Dare, spoilers for the end of the game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 14:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13591659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: Elida had matured in the months that Aloy had seen her – she was now a woman, when before she had just been a girl. Aloy hadn’t thought that Elida had been that much younger than her – did Aloy look like that now? Older, and perhaps, a little wiser?





	Truth or Dare?

 

Aloy jogged up the last rise before she would be able to spot Brightmarket. The setting sun sparkled off the great lake behind the town as it came into view, and Aloy took a second to marvel at it. Since the path to Brightmarket was well travelled, she’d hardly come across any machines since leaving Meridian.

The reconstruction of GAIA Prime was going fairly well, but Aloy couldn’t help but itch to edge it along faster. She’d been on site for the last three weeks and hadn’t spoken to anyone but herself in that time. She’d felt overwhelmed when she’d gone back to Meridian, like it had been her first time in the city all over again – so many people, all talking, all with their own problems. The city was still inhabited, even though the scars from the final battle were still painfully evident. Aloy had lingered as a group of Oseram had bellowed and huffed at one another while putting a new archway in between two buildings. Aloy thought that it would probably reinforce the city as well as making it look prettier.

Erend hadn’t been in Meridian, and she hadn’t wanted to wait around to see Avad, so she’d gone to Talanah, who had welcomed her with open arms and a wide smile. Talanah had showed her the ways that she’d changed the hunter’s lodge in the time that Aloy had been gone – nearly seven months, which Aloy had been shocked by when Talanah had added the time together on her fingers. Had it really been that long since she’d faced down HADES?

She’d come down from the Bitter Climb because she thought that there was a piece of information she needed underneath Sunfall in the bunker there. After Aloy had remembered how fast it had been to cross the lake with Vanasha escorting Itamen and Nasadi, she’d struck out for Brightmarket, intent on finding a boat and hopefully someone to sail it for her.

She was half way towards the docks when she heard a familiar voice call out.

“Aloy!”

Used to people recognising her by now, Aloy turned, annoyance clogged in her throat. It died away when she recognised the person who was trotting up to her.

Elida had matured in the months that Aloy had seen her – she was now a woman, when before she had just been a girl. Aloy hadn’t thought that Elida had been that much younger than her – did _Aloy_ look like that now? Older, and perhaps, a little wiser?

Elida grinned when she caught up to Aloy. “Hey! Long time no see, huh?”

“It has been,” Aloy said. “I haven’t passed through Brightmarket in a while. How have you been?”

Elida smiled again, and Aloy’s eyes were drawn to the dimples on her face. _Cute._

“I’ve been better, but I think that things are definitely improving.” Her smile turned wistful. “Atral’s memory lingers, but I know that he would have wanted me to move on. So I try to make the most of every sunrise.”

“Good,” Aloy said, and really meant it. “I’m really happy for you, Elida.”

Elida nodded. “I am, too. But I’m sure that you’re not just here to catch up on news of yesterday’s sun. What are you up to today?”

Aloy’s mind swirled – perhaps Elida could help her with her problem. “I’m actually looking to cross to the other side of the lake,” she said. “Do you know where I could find a boat, and someone to sail it for me?”

Elida bobbed her head, suddenly confident. “Of course! My father is head of one of the foremost houses of the Sun, and the most powerful in Brightmarket. I’ll just ask him to give you a boat.”

“Thank you,” Aloy said. Elida turned and began walking back to where Aloy remembered her home was. “I am in a hurry, so it’s good if you’re able to speed me on my way.”

“Of course,” Elida said, giggling a little. “After everything you’ve done for us? I’m sure my father will jump to help.”

Aloy hadn’t been inside Elida’s house before, and so she looked around curiously when she got inside. It reminded her of the inside of the Hunter’s Lodge before the final battle – red stone and wide ceiling beams. There was a woman who hurried to meet them as the door clicked shut behind them.

“Lady Elida!” she exclaimed. “You’re back. And you brought…” She stared at Aloy. “The saviour of Meridian,” she said, choked.

“Where’s my father, Amalia?” Elida asked.

“In his study,” Amalia stammered.

“Okay.” Elida brushed past her, and Aloy followed. She could feel Amalia’s eyes tangibly on her back, a sensation that made her uncomfortable. She’d had more than enough worship from the Nora for her to be okay with it anywhere else.

Elida knocked on a door before pushing it open. “Father?”

Aloy lingered awkwardly in the background as Lahavis looked up from the parchment on his desk. “Elida? What… Oh!”

Aloy suffered though his greetings and inquiries about Meridian before Elida got a word in sideways.

“Father! Aloy needs our help.”

“Oh, yes, I suppose, if you’re here… What do you need?”

“A boat to take her across the Daybrink,” Elida said. “She has business on the other side and needs to get there quickly.”

“I see.” Lahavis stroked his chin. “There is a ship coming from the other side… yes, there is trade between the two banks now that the Eclipse have been dealt with… however the ship will not arrive until later this afternoon. You are, of course, welcome to wait here until it is time to leave.”

Aloy looked to Elida, who nodded. “I would be grateful for your hospitality, and use of your boat.”

“Very well. I trust that Elida can keep you occupied until then.” He looked back at his papers and Elida came back to Aloy’s side, linking an arm through hers.

“I told you that he would have a boat! Let’s go and sit in the parlour, it’s nice in there and we can see out over the garden.”

Aloy followed Elida through the house. They passed by Amalia, and Elida asked for some drinks to be brought out to the parlour.

In the parlour, there were several low tables surrounded by couches heaped with cushions. Aloy felt awkward in her heavy armour as she sat down on the softness.

“Things have been pretty quiet around here,” Elida said. Amalia appeared by her elbow and set down two cups and a steaming pot of tea, as well as a plate of biscuits. “There are still factions of Shadow Carja across the Daybrink, but they truly are just factions. Blazon Arch is firmly under Carja control, and so is Sunfall… although I heard that the Radiant Avad was thinking of renaming it. He said that the name only reminded us all of sorrowful times. I don’t know that I think. I’m not sure that the name matters all that much, but then again, the Shadow Carja have never moved against me.” Her face closed. “At least not directly…”

Aloy shivered as she remembered how she had found Atral, broken and bloody. “I’m not sure that a name matters much either, but I suppose it’s the symbolism that he’s going for.”

Elida nodded. She poured Aloy a cup of tea and then poured one for herself as well. “Perhaps,” she said.

They sat in silence for a few seconds. Aloy tried her tea – it was something fruity and light. It made her smile a little bit – it tasted completely Carja, in a way only they could manage.

“Is the Sundom different to where you grew up?” Elida asked.

“Oh, yes,” Aloy said. “I grew up alone, with only Rost to look after me. We were… outcasts.”

Elida gasped softly. “I had heard that rumour, but I had never thought it true. The Nora must have been very misguided to have done that.”

Aloy managed a smile. “It was alright, even if it was a bit lonely sometimes.”

Elida’s cup clattered down in its dish. “Oh! I didn’t even think of that. I can’t imagine a childhood without my friends in it.”

Aloy nodded. “I’m trying to make up for it now,” she said, lifting her tea cup slightly.

Elida’s eyes widened. “Well then, we have until afternoon! And that means we have enough time to play a game.”

“A game?” Aloy asked cautiously.

Elida nodded. “Yes, yes! Fun, meaningless games, that you can all laugh about later. That’s what I remember most fondly about my childhood.”

“Actually,” Aloy said, mind churning. “I think I may have found something like that.”

“Oh?” Elida asked.

Yes, she remembered now – when she’d been up in the Claim, she’d come across a datapoint that had been something like what Elida was talking about. Aloy had read the description but not the meat of the text, because she’d had no one to ask the questions to.

She pulled up her menu and found the datapoint. “Truth or Dare.”

“Oh?” Elida asked, a bit confused.

Right, she didn’t know about her focus. Aloy explained it as quickly as she could, and thankfully Elida already had a vague understanding of what they were.

“So what is this… truth or dare?” Elida asked.

Aloy was already scanning the instructions quickly. “It’s described as a party game, for two or more players. Well, we have that.” She smiled at the other woman.

“You ask someone ‘truth or dare’ and they have to either answer a question truthfully or perform an act that the asker picks.”

“We had a game like that!” Elida says excitedly. “We called it scramble. Basically, we would come up with a task that someone would have to perform, and make it as terrible as possible. And then we would all ask each other questions, and whoever didn’t want to answer truthfully would have to perform the task.”

Aloy laughed. “That _does_ sound like a scramble.”

Elida nodded vigorously. “It was always funny when someone had to jump into the Daybrink.” She sighed wistfully. “But, I suppose this game is slightly different?”

“Yes, I have a list of questions here. And dares. So – truth or dare?” Aloy asked, feeling herself blush a little bit.

“Truth,” Elida said, sipping her tea. “Start from the top?”

“Right,” Aloy muttered. “How long have you gone without showering?”

“What’s showering?” Elida asked, amused.

“Er, bathing,” Aloy said, already berating herself for bringing this up.

Elida laughed. “Well! Getting straight into things, I see. Hmm.” She looked into the distance thoughtfully. “Well, when I was younger I used to hate getting my hair wet. So I would always fight to not wash it. I think perhaps I went for a month before my mother forcibly dunked my head into the garden waters!”

Aloy laughed with her. “Well, we used to have to go without bathing in the winter,” she admitted. “It would be too cold to get wet – we would risk getting sick.”

“I didn’t know that,” Elida said, intrigued. “Okay, what’s next? I ask you? I feel like I’m at a disadvantage without the question list.”

“I can tell you the next question,” Aloy offered, and Elida nodded.

“Okay, well – truth or dare, Aloy?”

“Dare,” Aloy said. She looked at the dare list. “Eat a whole mouthful of crackers and try to whistle?” _What?_

Elida snorted. “Well, there’s some biscuits here. But I suppose you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

Feeling challenged, Aloy took three biscuits. “Then I wouldn’t be playing, would I?”

She managed to fit the biscuits inside her mouth. Elida was visibly trying not to smile, her lips twitching.

Taking a breath, Aloy tried to whistle the same whistle that she normally did, to call over a watcher to take down. All that happened was that she spat a bunch of biscuit crumbs across the table. A fair few of them landed in her tea.

Elida snorted so hard she started choking on the mouthful of tea that she’d just sipped, and Aloy tried to laugh without the rest of the biscuits falling out of her mouth. “Okay then,” she tried to say, but it sounded a lot more like “Mooooke eeen.”

Aloy ate the biscuits with a little help from the tea, and Elida quickly brushed the crumbs into a pile. “Well, that was definitely funny,” she chuckled. Aloy could feel her cheeks going red, but it was a good feeling – which in and of itself was weird.

“Okay, okay, next question,” Aloy said. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Elida said, still chuckling.

Aloy read the next dare on the list. “Combine two foods that should never go together and eat a huge bite.”

Elida’s eyebrow rose. “Well, I’m sure we can find something in the pantry.”

Aloy followed her through the rest of the house, coming to a dark room set into the side of the cliff, which was pleasantly cool. Inside was several shelves arranged so that all the space was used as efficiently as possible. On the shelves were mostly jars, but there were some dried fruits and meats hanging from the ceiling.

“Foods that should never go together…” Elida mused. “Well, what about… fish paste and… cherries?”

Aloy shuddered at the self-inflicted combination that Elida had picked out. The other woman picked up a jar and reached out to grab a handful of cherries.

Aloy admired her courage as Elida determinedly smeared some of the paste onto a cherry, then popped it into her mouth.

Immediately her face screwed up, and Aloy grinned at the expression. Elida stubbornly chewed, until she spat the cherry pit out and wagged her tongue at Aloy. “All gone!”

“I can see,” Aloy said. “How was it?”

“Terrible,” Elida said, putting the jar back where she found it. “I’m looking forward to my tea.”

Indeed, she raced back to the parlour, leaving Aloy in her wake. Aloy found her sitting on her couch, finishing her cup of tea.

“Ack! That was gross.”

“I’ve eaten some strange things, but cherry and fish paste is something that I’ve yet to taste,” Aloy admitted.

“Well, be glad for it,” Elida said. “I get to ask a question now, right? Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Aloy said, and not because she was scared of getting a dare that would make her have to eat fish paste and cherries. No, not at all.

Aloy pulled up the list of questions and read out the next one. “Have you ever lied in a game of truth or dare before?” She laughed. “Well, since I’ve never played before, no.”

“Ahh, pick another,” Elida encouraged her.

“You just don’t want to do another dare,” Aloy teased.

“It’s true,” Elida said dramatically. Aloy loved the way she tilted her head to sigh and blink multiple times.

“Okay,” Aloy gave in. “What is one thing you’ve never told anyone else?”

“Ohh,” Elida hummed, sitting back on the couch and waiting for an answer.

Aloy pondered over the question. What _was_ something she had never told anyone else? When she was younger, she blurted out every thought she had to Rost with hardly a second to filter any of it. And Sylens had been a silent witness to the events over the last year – although that didn’t mean she had told him anything…

“I guess,” she sighed. “I never told anyone that I was disappointed that I never got to meet my mother. The whole reason I left Nora lands was to try and figure out who she was, but in the end… I found out that she died a long time ago. And that was really hard to deal with – I just wanted to talk to her, one time, but I never got that opportunity.”

“Oh.” When Aloy gathered the courage to look at Elida, her eyes are brimming with tears. “I didn’t know that. I’m so sorry, Aloy.”

Aloy shrugged. “It’s not like I knew her, or anything. It’s not like your mum – I’m sure you miss her.”

“I do,” Elida agreed. “But… I still have the memories of her holding me to comfort me when I’m alone and missing her. I know what her voice sounded like, and I can remember how she would chastise me if I was going to do something foolish. Even though her death hurts… I would never give up those memories.”

Aloy sucked in an unsteady breath. “I’m really glad that you have those memories, Elida. Really glad.”

Elida nodded. “That’s why I’m so sorry that you don’t have that to hold on to. I didn’t know.”

Aloy managed a weak smile. “Yeah, everyone’s usually too busy fawning over my actions that they forget to ask how _I’m_ doing.”

Elida stared at her. “I’ll remember that,” she promised. “Father is thinking about moving to Meridian. I’m sure that we would run into each other there. If you want a friend… I’ll always be here, Aloy.”

Aloy lowered her eyes so that Elida wouldn’t see that she was about to cry. She’d enduring rough training and fallen from trees and cliffs, had been smacked around by machines, but _this_ was what made her cry?

Elida moved closer to her on the couch and put a hand over hers. “Tears aren’t always bad,” she said softly. “They’re often a way forward, a way to heal. I’ve learned that, recently. You helped me to see that.”

Aloy sniffed in a breath and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. Elida’s skin was warm and soft.

“Thanks,” she said shakily. “Like I said I’ve… never told that to anyone before.”

“Some things you shouldn’t carry alone,” Elida said confidently. “I’m glad that you found the strength to share with me, Aloy.”

Aloy took a sip of her cooled tea, suddenly feeling lighter than she had in months. “Ahem. Er, next question?” Maybe that would dispel this weird atmosphere.

Elida smiled softly at her. “Ask away.”

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Elida said.

“Ready for more fish and cherry?” Aloy asked, managing to make it a little cheeky.

“We’ve already had that dare,” Elida dismissed her concerns. “What’s the next dare?”

Aloy found the list. “Kiss another person playing the game.” _Oh._ “Which would, um, be me, I guess. Which I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to!”

Elida was trying not to smile again. “It’s fine… unless you don’t want to?”

Aloy managed to shake her head. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to say anything at the moment.

Elida was already sitting next to her, and Aloy was suddenly extremely aware of her soft scent. The other woman was smiling as she leaned over and brushed their lips together. Aloy pressed into the kiss, sighing softly. Elida’s lips were soft, and… tasted like fish?

Elida pulled back and Aloy realised they’d been kissing for quite a while. “Well,” Aloy started to say.

“Lady Elida?”

Elida closed her eyes for a second before turning to where Amalia was standing in the entrance to the room. “Yes, Amalia?”

“Your father sent me to tell you that the ship came in early. Lady Aloy can depart as soon as she’s ready.”

“Thank you, Amalia,” Elida said.

The older woman bowed and then left.

“Well, looks like it’s time for me to go,” Aloy said awkwardly. What did you say to someone after you’d kissed them for the first time?

“Yes,” Elida agreed. “Come, I’ll walk you out.”

Outside, Brightmarket was bustling like normal. Elida walked with Aloy to the docks, where a man greeted them.

“You must be the woman we’re waiting for. Well, come on then, I’ve got to get back across to Blazon Arch before the sun sets.” He impatiently walked back off towards his boat.

Aloy turned to Elida. “Thank you for your hospitality,” she said.

Elida waved her words off. “You’re welcome anytime. And you had better remember that! If you want to drop by and talk about anything at all, then I’d better find your shadow on my doorstep, understood?”

“Okay,” Aloy said, bemused. “I will, I promise.”

Elida looked out over the water. “Good. Well, I wish you safe travels.” Aloy blushed as she leaned up to give her another kiss. “And I’ll see you around!”

“Right,” Aloy said, feeling kind of stunned. “Right.”

Standing on board of the boat as it left Brightmarket, Aloy couldn’t help but stand and look back at the town. Even as the settlement grew further and further away, Aloy could still make out Elida’s unmoving form on the docks.

Even though nothing had really changed since this morning, Aloy inexplicably felt much better. Somewhere between hearing Elida call out her name and leaving her behind on the docks, the other woman had managed to soothe a part of Aloy’s inner turmoil. Aloy couldn’t help but feel grateful to her.

And, perhaps, she was looking forward to seeing her again.

**Author's Note:**

> I.... love them...
> 
> Today's prompt was: truth or dare


End file.
